But, seriously, our states were intended to be just that: sovereign states, in a fairly informal association that became the federal government. That's why we have an electoral college, instead of a national direct, popular vote. It's actually quite a good system, that protects citizens in the less populated states.
Our federal government became much more powerful, and much larger than was ever intended, but we still use this method of election, and I think it's a good system.
The EU uses somewhat different methods, but it also uses certain "undemocratic" measures to make sure that all decisions cannot simply be made by France and Germany.
So, likewise, here, we ensure some measure of distribution of power by allowing the states, not the people directly, to elect our president.